AR HR1043

Scipio Africanus Jones was born in 1863 in Tulip, Arkansas to an enslaved mother and became a prominent Little Rock attorney, passing the bar in 1889 and admitted to practice before the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1900 and U.S. Supreme Court in 1905.

Jones represented indigent citizens throughout his career and worked to correct abuse and injustice in Arkansas's penal system, serving as judge in temporary and special capacities.

Jones defended twelve Black men arrested following the 1919 Elaine Massacre who were sentenced to death for murder; the prosecution characterized their case as a Black uprising.

Jones worked with attorney George W. Murphy (hired by the NAACP) to challenge the convictions, which were marked by weak evidence, lack of witness cross-examination, and short jury deliberations.

The legal team successfully secured the release of all twelve men by January 1925, with Jones calling it "the greatest case against peonage and mob law ever fought in the land."